The To-Do and To-Done List

This is not RJ preparing for kindergarten;
it's RJ enjoying the children's museum. 

As you may recall, Sowers4Pastors is hosting five and a half teams in six weeks. When we last spoke, they were in the middle of their four-day period with no teams. Russell pointed out that people often think the Sowerses get a vacation on the days there aren’t teams. In reality, this “lull” gives them four days to prepare for the next two teams that are coming, as well as handling a few other things on the “To-Do” list.

Even though this is no vacation, Russell was able to work in a little family fun by taking Iris, R.J., and Abby along to drop off the last visiting team at the airport in San Pedro. While there, they visited the children’s museum and even saw Toy Story 4, which is about all the extravagance Russell will have for the year. He laughed and said for me to tell you the movie was good, but that you shouldn’t go see it. You should use that money to fill backpacks instead of following in the footsteps of the “wasteful missionary.” The more you know about Russell’s frugal nature, the funnier that statement is.

Abby plays doctor at the children's museum.

Of course, even a day away did include some more practical stops. The family squeezed in a trip to the Honduran equivalent of a Sam’s or Costco where they purchased luxury items, such as bulk dog food. They were also able to pick up some pressure treated tongue and groove flooring for the new house construction. Allen hopes to find some time to work on the house a little over the next two and a half weeks.

Even the working on the blog takes up some of Russell’s team-free time. To be fair, though, that’s a weekly commitment that happens no matter what. Russell is always a champion when it comes to standing on a mountaintop trying to get enough cell reception to give me sufficient fodder for a blog post while hosting a team.

Top on the list of things to accomplish is getting RJ registered for kindergarten. Russell has to get over to sign him up because space at the local bilingual school is very limited.

RJ visits the moon . . . or as close as you can get to that, in San Pedro Sula! 

Russell has been told there are finally motorcycle license plates available in the country! The government's inability to produce motorcycle license plates has been an ongoing issue, requiring Russell to frequently check in on this. Some motorcycle recipients have been without plates for a full two years. It’s great the plates are available, but it will mean a trip into Santa Rosa de Copán to get them, and that's about an hour drive from Gracias.

On safari in San Pedro Sula

Other things on the To-Do list include having a team meeting with the Halls and Kelsea, vehicle maintenance, running Kelsea to the airport so she can fly to a friend’s wedding, and office work.

As mentioned earlier, they are also prepping for the upcoming two teams. That means visits to multiple schools to be sure everything is in order for the teams’ scheduled VBS programs. Melvin started doing that on Monday and is actually a little ahead of schedule. They are now doing the preliminary work for team visits in August.

Russell is catching up with Allen and Trish to discuss all of the things that need to happen this week and beyond. They are also discussing their possible involvement in a new water project for multiple local communities. But that’s another topic for another post. Stay tuned!

 - posted by Christi